"Cielito Lindo"

“De la Sierra Morena, cielito lindo, vienen bajando

Un par de ojitos negros, cielito lindo, de contrabando

De la Sierra Morena, cielito lindo, vienen bajando

Un par de ojitos negros, cielito lindo, de contrabando”

Cielito Lindo

Cielito Lindo was a song I grew up listening to growing up. For many if not all Mexicans it’s a song that allows us to have a little bit of Mexico anywhere we go. For many, they never get to go back to their home country and their culture is a combination of what they remember from back home and what they are now exposed to. I hope you’re catching the direction I’m going. No? Immigration and family culture. 

I took some time to talk to a couple volunteers who were willing to share their story on how immigration impacted their families and their culture. I interviewed three people who were from Colombia, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Although they share similar stories, their experiences and thoughts on this are unique. 

Volunteer H is from Nicaragua and he came to the US in 2016. He met his wife while serving an LDS mission in Honduras and later reconnected. When we were talking about why he came to the US he explained that it was because of his wife and family. He later elaborated that him being in the United allowed him to provide financial aid for his family back in Nicaragua. He was able to get them a new home built for them, new home appliances and other necessities. However, he brought up an interesting point, his family started asking for more money. He grew up in Nicaragua so he knew that the money some family members were asking for was a bit excessive. When trying to talk to his family about this subject, it strained their relationship. H expressed how he had to stand up to defend his new family while setting boundaries with those back home. What he knew about home was no longer and as he shared this, his

Missing home comes with leaving it behind. H shared how he misses the hospitality of his country. He misses the closeness of the people and his friend. He said he finds it hard to find another man his age he can call a good friend. When asked if his culture has changed, he said “it has 100%, my wife’s culture is now mine.”

Another volunteer, M, is from Colombia. We talked about how coming to the US was not in her plans. She nor her family ever thought coming to the US would be an option. In her mind, she’d stay in Colombia and work to be the breadwinner for her family. M really emphasized on embracing the good from her Columbian culture but leaving the bad behind.When talking about her family culture before coming to the US, she stated she did everything with her family and so everything she learned and embraced in her culture came from her family. 

M shared an interesting point, she said that coming to the US is hard enough for immigrants. She noticed the enormous cultural shock while moving to another country. However, as great as the US is, who would want to leave their home, their people, and their everything if not for an opportunity at the American dream. 

F, the last volunteer is from Mexico. When discussing how immigration impacts a family dynamic and culture, she said the following: 

“Immigrating, undeniably, comes at a cost. Whether it be one person or many, something is essentially lost. It can take the form of a support system shrinking, fear in a new country over immigration status, not understanding the language forces an unforeseen and often misunderstood pressure for children to figure things out for a family unit. Although there may be financial gain in some cases, the hard work it takes to succeed in a new country leaves a lot of trauma along the way. One, that many families are not equipped or have had the luxury of time to learn how to overcome. It is very complex, because for the older immigrant, in many cases my parents, having pride in our home country, going to school, eating our home food, listening to my grandparent’s music, and traditions were the most important ideals. They served as the only connection to the only place they ever called home. I was too young to appreciate why I needed to be so prideful. Without questions, I followed what I saw, heard, and experienced.”

Being Mexican-American comes with a lot grey areas. At times, I have thought about how I cannot truly relate to my cousins back in Mexico or my friends whose families have been in the US for generations. I stand with M when she shared that it is important to take the good from one's culture and apply it and the bad we do not allow it to continue. Understanding that we can make a large impact for our future generations and how what we decide to pass along is of great importance. We want them to thrive and teach them valuable lessons. Understanding the why we'd want to preserve certain traditions in the culture will allow us to be creative and find ways to do so.

Lives are changed when someone decides to leave their homeland for another country. For whatever reason they decided to leave, the changes and its effects were already intact. Many of us leave our culture behind only to find ourselves creating a hybrid culture that’ll be the catalyst for our future generations. 

References

Cielito Lindo. Youtube, 21 Sept. 2015, https://youtu.be/5DrwY21nP1Q. Accessed 29 Jan. 2022.